Author: Phlippages
Assets worth Billions of Naira, including proceeds of corruption, confiscated from politically exposed persons, civil servants and other individuals are currently rotting away, findings by Sunday PUNCH have revealed.
This is happening at a time the Federal Government is facing a cash crunch that has made it resort to borrowing from multilateral agencies and China to pay salaries and execute capital projects. Some of the assets include over 90 sea vessels, scores of fuel-laden tankers, trucks, exotic cars, residential and commercial buildings, machinery, phones, laptops, jewellery, furniture, equipment and other items, which have been left at the mercy of the elements.
The assets were recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Police Force, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and others.
Apart from this, many of the assets have also been cornered by top officials of the agencies and the government or sold to their cronies illegally.
A report of the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets titled, ‘Final Report of the Presidential Investigation Committee on the EFCC Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to May 2020’, stated that the former acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, could not give a proper account of 332 out of the 836 recovered properties in March 2018.The panel alleged that recovered properties were taken over by some top EFCC officials or sold to Magu’s friends and cronies at giveaway prices.
It also disclosed that the retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police was unable to account for the interest generated from the N550bn cash recovered from 2015 to 2020.
The report stated, “A disturbing example is the two vessels that allegedly sank at the NNS Beecroft Naval Base, Lagos, and the NNS Pathfinder Naval Base in Port Harcourt without trace under the watch of the acting chairman of the EFCC.
The vessels named MT GOOD SUCCESS, MV PSV DERBY and MV THAMES were allowed to sink in spite of several warnings from the Navy on the need to evacuate the petroleum products in the vessels.”
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the damning report led to the constitution of the Justice Ayo Salami committee, which probed Magu’s tenure and recommended his sacking and prosecution.
Diezani, Badeh’s assets
Some of the abandoned properties were seized from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke; the late Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, and hundreds of other people convicted of corruption by the anti-graft agencies.
Diezani, who was minister under former President Goodluck Jonathan, has been in the United Kingdom since 2015 and has refused to return to Nigeria.
Assets confiscated from her are located in highbrow Banana Island Foreshore Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, and include 18 flats and six penthouses at Building 3, Block B, Bella Vista, Plot 1, Zone N, Federal Government Layout.
Other recovered items are 125 pieces of wedding gowns, 13 pieces of small gowns, 41 pieces of waist trainers, 73 pieces of hard flowers, 11 pieces of suit, 11 pieces of invisible bra, 73 pieces of veils, 30 pieces of braziers, two pieces of standing fans, 17 pieces of magic skits, six packets of blankets, one table blanket and 64 pairs of shoes.
Assets confiscated from Badeh are located in the Wuse 2 and Maitama areas of the Federal Capital Territory.
Other assets listed for sale by the government include No. 14 Adzope Crescent, off Kumasi Crescent; 19 Kumasi Crescent, Wuse 2; and 6 Umme Street, Wuse 2, Abuja.
Assets’ locations
Investigations revealed that the forfeited assets were being kept in over 25 locations across the country and many of them were said to have depreciated greatly.
For instance, scores of the seized vehicles kept at a dump opposite the National Mosque, Central Business District, Abuja, are no longer serviceable. Some of them have also been vandalised or plundered, while others have been destroyed.
The premises of the EFCC headquarters in Jabi, Abuja; Lagos, Port Harcourt and other places are also littered with fleets of forfeited exotic cars, which are rotting away under the elements.
In March, over 20 trucks filled with assorted types of petroleum products impounded from suspected illegal artisanal refiners were gutted by fire following a massive explosion at the Iriebe premises of the EFCC in the Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Similarly, the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Assessment and Status of All Recovered Loots Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for Effective, Efficient Management and Utilisation raised the alarm last November that some of the 90 ships seized by the EFCC had begun to sink in waters across the country.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, had in November 2020, inaugurated an inter-ministerial committee on forfeited assets following the approval of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on October 27.
The committee was initially headed by the erstwhile Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Dayo Apata, who handed over to his successor after his retirement in July 2021.
The committee was given a six-month timeframe for the disposal of all Federal Government assets slated for sale.
